How to Reduce Bias in the Hiring Process

Personal opinions or affinity can influence judgement during any step of the hiring process—intentionally or unintentionally. From the language used in the job description to the diversity of the hiring committee, hiring managers should understand how to maintain inclusivity and prevent bias from discounting skilled, qualified candidates.

One of the simplest ways to reduce bias is to standardize the hiring process so every candidate has the same experience. NOCTI Business Solutions (NBS) creates pre-hire skills assessments, which undergo rigorous testing to identify and remove any potential bias. This can help hiring managers identify qualified candidates in a way that is legally defensible against potential discrimination.

How Bias Affects the Hiring Process

Even the most open-minded and thoughtful people can have unintended biased perspectives. While we may examine our decisions and recognize the biases that can affect them, it’s also important to realize unintentional bias can influence our choices as well.

Unconscious bias (also called implicit bias) can occur because our brains have a natural desire to categorize things. This desire to categorize means being influenced by stereotypes based on looks, actions, and even names if they fall into a certain mental category.

Affinity bias is another type of unconscious bias based on the natural mental desire to seek out people that are like us. While finding common ground is a great way to make small talk, there is potential for affinity bias to skew the results in favor of candidates who look, act, or think in a similar way to the hiring personnel.

While these are human instincts, they might not be accurate or helpful for the hiring process. A truly exceptional team is built on a foundation of diversity. Different backgrounds, experiences, and ideas lead to more creative problem solving and greater teamwork. In fact, data has shown that diversity correlates with better financial performance for public companies.

Inclusive Recruitment Strategies to Avoid Hiring Bias

Since bias has the potential to be somewhat harmful to the hiring process, and even the long-term prospects of a company, it’s in the hiring manager’s best interest to reduce bias toward potential job candidates. Here are six strategies to maintain an inclusive recruitment program and a strong workforce.

1. Since bias has the potential to be somewhat harmful to the hiring process, and even the long-term prospects of a company, it’s in the hiring manager’s best interest to reduce bias toward potential job candidates. Here are six strategies to maintain an inclusive recruitment program and a strong workforce.
2. Job Descriptions: Job description language can subtly tell a potential candidate that they do or don’t belong in that candidate pool. For example, using masculine or feminine language can unintentionally tell candidates what the gender expectations are for a role.
3. Blind Resume Review: By removing demographic information from resumes (such as name, address, email address, dates of employment, etc.), hiring managers will naturally focus on the qualifications and talent of a job candidate.
4. Diverse Interview Panels: When your interview panel consists of team members of varied backgrounds and interests, you reduce the potential for affinity bias and “groupthink.” Diverse panels also model inclusivity and improve the likelihood of a candidate making a positive connection with someone on the panel.
5. Standardized Interviews: Keep the interview process the same for all candidates. A structured interview can minimize bias and keep the meeting focused on the skills and qualifications of the potential new hire. Ask the same questions in the same order, with a predetermined grading scale to rate the candidate’s answers. Ensure questions focus on finding a qualified candidate and avoid information that could exacerbate bias.
6. Standardized Skills Assessments: An assessment can provide an objective appraisal of a candidate’s ability to perform a job, including verification that they have the right skills to perform successfully in a role. Most assessments offer quantitative data that can help hiring managers easily rank candidates and find the most qualified person.

NBS’ Comprehensive Assessments Reduce Hiring Bias

At NBS, our proven process for developing and administering skills assessments has helped hiring managers all over the country identify qualified candidates in an unbiased, inclusive manner. Our pre-employment tests verify a candidate’s skills, so hiring managers can make better informed decisions and create a team that excels.

Here are four ways our pre-employment assessments can benefit your hiring process:

Learn More About NBS’ Skills Assessments

If you’re ready to reduce bias in your hiring process, NBS offers a significant library of pre-hire skills assessments. You can view the full list of existing assessments here, and click on any assessment to view the specific competencies of each test on the test blueprint.

We have nearly 170 different skills assessments and we’re consistently developing additional reliable skills validations for all different industries. If you’d like to create a custom assessment specific to your industry or your needs, partner with NBS to ensure that your custom skills test is looking at the right qualifications in a way that is inclusive to all job seekers.

For more information, please contact us and we’ll show you how NBS skills assessments can benefit your hiring process.